Financial advice groups affected by ASIC’s clarification of section 923A of the Corporations Act have diverged into two camps on how to respond to the development.

The federal government has endorsed proposals to raise the professional, ethical and education standards of financial planners, and will require planners to be degree-qualified, pass an exam, undertake continuing professional development subscribe to a code of ethics, and undertake a professional year.

National Australia Bank executives will need to pull a rabbit out of a hat when they front a Senate estimates hearing on Friday to explain serious misconduct in its financial planning division.

The government is resisting renewed calls for a royal commission into financial advice after revelations of misconduct at National Australia Bank, saying it is already responding to problems in the industry.

The first assessments of the CBA’s Open Advice Review (OAR) are now in the hands of affected clients, but the process is expected to drag out well into late 2016, says the bank’s chief executive Ian Narev.

For 22 years Sydney financial adviser Melinda Scott siphoned millions of dollars out of her clients' superannuation funds – spending the money on property, family holidays and private school fees.

UPDATE: Early in 2015 we published this article, outlining the corruption in the banking sector and how the banks have been able to get away with the taking of peoples businesses, lively hoods, properties and homes.